Who is responsible
Your community (for example your residents' association) decides what information it keeps about its members and why. It is the responsible party, and its committee's chairperson is normally its Information Officer.
This app runs the service for complexes and handles your information on their behalf (the operator). For questions about the app itself, email privacy@ourarea.co.za.
What we keep
- Your details: name, email address and, if given, phone number.
- Membership: the complexes you belong to, your role, and your membership payments (amounts, dates, references and any notes a manager adds).
- Your unit in the complex (for example "Unit 12"). It's shown next to your name to other residents of your complex.
- Applications to join: if you register to join a complex, the details you give (name, email, phone, unit, who referred you and your comments), so its directors can decide.
- What you post: marketplace items and photos, and messages you send to sellers.
- Logins: when you logged in and from which kind of device, to keep your account safe.
Why
To run your membership (who is a member, who has paid), to send you login codes, reminders and news, and to keep the app secure. We don't sell your information, use it for advertising, or share it with anyone else for their own purposes.
Who can see it
- Your complex's directors and managers see members' details, payments and units. Directors and managers of other complexes can't.
- Other members see your first name and unit on marketplace items, and your name and unit on calendar events you add. Your email address and phone number are never shown; when someone is interested in your item, they send you their details. The one exception: a manager can choose to show their own name, phone number and email to their complex's members.
- Service providers that run the app for us: hosting in South Africa, image storage and email sending through Amazon Web Services in Cape Town.
How it's protected
Names, email addresses, phone numbers, units, bank details and similar information are encrypted in the database. Logins use one-time codes instead of passwords. Changing a complex's bank details needs an extra emailed code, and every manager is told.
How long we keep it
- Marketplace items: removed after 2 weeks without changes, or 2 weeks after being sold, with their photos and buyers' messages.
- Emails we've sent you: 90 days.
- Applications to join: 30 days after a manager approves or rejects them. If you're approved, your details carry on as a member.
- If a manager removes you: your information in that complex is erased after 12 months. Payment amounts and dates stay in the complex's records, without your name.
- An account that no longer belongs to any complex is deleted.
Your rights
On your My profile page you can:
- correct your details;
- download a copy of everything stored about you;
- leave one complex and have your information there removed;
- delete your account.
You can also ask your complex's directors and managers, or email privacy@ourarea.co.za. If you're not happy with how your information is handled, you can complain to the Information Regulator: inforegulator.org.za.